All posts tagged auto

Toyota has reached a proposed settlement in a class-action lawsuit over cases of so-called unintended acceleration that were reported in 2009-10. The cases, and subsequent recall of more than 8 million cars, were a serious black eye for Toyota, from which the company is only now recovering.

Toyota is set to pay out up to $1.1 billion if the settlement is approved. If you own, or owned, a Toyota in the last few years, it’s worth checking toyotaelsettlement.com for the details. Once the settlement comes into effect, owners will be able to enter their vehicle identification number at that site, and find out about any compensation potentially available to them.

A pretty strong chart from today’s WSJ piece by Jeff Bennett and Christina Rogers, looking at a new problem for Detroit auto makers: despite healthy sales growth, stockpiles of unsold vehicles are building up to more than twice the size of the industry average. And foreign brands are not having the same problem.

Volvo Car Corp., snapped up in 2010 by a Chinese conglomerate, will remain a Swedish automaker even as the European market sags, the focus on Chinese consumers sharpens and its reliance on low-cost manufacturing soars, according to the company’s new chief executive.

Battling falling sales, a murky outlook and a need to reduce ties to former owner Ford Motor Co., newly-installed Chief Executive Hakan Samuelsson said the company is pumping billions into its longtime home market. Volvo is in the midst of spending billions in Sweden to update manufacturing operations and revamp engines and vehicle platforms.

Mr. Samuelsson was installed in October as the replacement for Stefan Jacoby as CEO.

“If anybody thought that Volvo had the intention to move to China, I think we, with these signals, can put those ideas to rest,” he said during a press conference at Volvo’s headquarters. He was accompanied by a Swedish politician who lauded Volvo’s investments in Sweden as “gigantic” and among the biggest in Sweden’s industrial history.

Western auto makers are having mixed luck with keeping production at home — more on this after the jump. Read More »

Caption: Donald Trump and his daughter Ivanka at a launch party for Trump International Realty, their new brokerage firm. Credit: Roland Li for The Wall Street Journal Published Credit: Roland Li for The Wall Street Journal

By Joseph B. White

New York developer Donald Trump waded into the war over the auto bailout Thursday, and got a blunt brushoff from one of Chrysler Group LLC’s top executives in return.

In a tweet, Mr. Trump — no fan of President Barack Obama — said: “Obama is a terrible negotiator. He bails out Chrysler and now Chrysler wants to send all Jeep manufacturing to China–and will!”

Obama is a terrible negotiator. He bails out Chrysler and now Chrysler wants to send all Jeep manufacturing to China–and will!

Mr. Trump’s comment alluded to a more carefully worded brace of ads from Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney’s campaign that state a fact – Chrysler is looking to build Jeeps in China – without the context that Chrysler is also investing in expansion of Jeep production in the U.S., and planning to hire more workers in the process.

The Romney ads targeted Ohio, the pivotal swing state that is home to a big Jeep factory in Toledo. Chrysler’s CEO, Sergio Marchionne, on Tuesday released a lengthy email to Chrysler employees assuring them the company was committed to its U.S. Jeep operations. Mr. Marchionne’s statement didn’t name the Romney campaign.

Shortly after Mr. Trump’s tweet surfaced Thursday, Vice President of Design, Ralph Gilles, found a way to summarize his boss’s message in a five word reply to Mr. Trump: “@realDonaldTrump you are full of s—” but without the dashes.

Update: The WSJ’s Jeff Bennett reports that GM’s Opel unit and Peugeot are looking to collaborate on specific projects and technology challenges, but are not intent on creating a full-fledged joint venture for their respective auto operations.

Instead, people familiar with the companies’ plans say GM’s German subsidiary and the auto operations of the French company want to find specific areas — such as small car engineering or engine technology — where they can combine forces and cut costs. PSA and Opel could also combine their purchasing operations, in hopes of getting better prices from parts makers in return for larger-volume orders. No definite deals have been struck in any case, people familiar with the discussions say. GM holds a 7% stake in PSA, which it agreed to buy in February for $420 million.

GM Vice Chairman Steve Girsky, who’s overseeing the overhaul of the Detroit auto maker’s money-losing European operations, has said in the past he wants to keep his options open as he looks for ways to salvage Opel. Both companies are under pressure to make decisions soon. Peugeot is estimated to be burning cash at a rate of 200 million euros a month, though it hopes to reach break even cash flow by 2014. GM lost $361 million in Europe during the second quarter.

What follows is an earlier report based on a story in a French newspaper that speculated GM and Peugeot were considering a broader auto alliance: